Integral Carpet Underlayment Water Extraction System and Method

ABSTRACT

A system of built-in, closely spaced passageways or piping containing numerous, small, closely-spaced holes, provided as an integral or separate part of the underlayment in a typical wall-to-wall carpet flooring installation. The piping network includes a manifold and access port which can be quickly and conveniently connected, from above or below the floor, to a typical motorized water pump or vacuum device, for the purpose of suctioning and drying large quantities of standing water, caused by accidental flooding for example, from within the carpet without the need for costly emergency professional services and equipment as is the norm today. The pump could be connected either from above or below the carpet floor as desired for convenience. The system can be provided at the time of new carpet installations or as a retrofit kit for existing installations and is scalable to any size of floor area in homes or buildings.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A common wall-to-wall, permanent or semi-permanent floor carpet installation in homes and commercial buildings consists of various forms of carpet placed on top of a permeable foam rubber or similar polymer-matrix material cushioning, or underlayment. A disadvantage of any of these installations is water contamination from flooding by sudden plumbing leaks, for example, which deteriorates most carpets and building structures in a short time, with rapid fungus growth among the primary concerns. With such large surface areas and permanently installed carpet and thick underlayment, there is no ready means to remove water caused by a flooding or spill emergency. Professional help is usually required to setup and operate, in a short amount of time, costly, portable water removal and drying equipment specific to the purpose.

This invention overcomes this impediment by providing a means of conveniently suctioning and drying, with the aid of a typical household motorized water pump or air/water vacuum machine, large quantities of standing water flowing through a distributed series of passageways or piping placed within or underneath the carpet underlayment, with easy access to a concealed, centralized port connection to the pump for rapid water removal.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention provides for a plurality of small tubes, pipes or passageways connected to a main tube or manifold and outlet fitting embedded within the carpet padded underlayment such that water or other fluids can readily be suctioned out. Each passage or pipe would have, perforating its sides, numerous smaller openings directly exposed to the carpet and/or underlayment for directing the water to the inside of the pipe. A commonly available liquid and air suction pump machine or water/air/vacuum cleaner, for example, is quickly attached to the outlet of the built-in carpet manifold using a pump adapter tube, and the pump extracts all water and subsequently draws air through the carpet and permeable underlayment for a period of time until the carpet dries out. The period of time would depend typically upon the area of the carpet and number of passageways and manifolds, as well as the pump horsepower, each of which are easily customized for the particular installation. In a common embodiment, the adapter fitting for connecting the carpet access port from the manifold would be assembled from the top surface of the carpet for convenience.

Alternatively the manifold access port would exit the bottom of the carpet installation through the floor of the building. Although this involves modifications to the building structure and/or floor design, the advantage is that there is no access port interrupting the top of the carpet surface and it provides a more integral, readily activated design within the building and a natural flow of water with the aid of gravity below the floor level.

In either case, the exit of the pump would be typically routed to a collection tank, plumbing drain or to the outside of the building for expelling the water.

The scale of the invention, i.e., the size, number and spacing of piping segments and pumps, would be arranged proportional to the particular size, thickness and area distribution and coverage of carpet desired for most efficient operation, removal of water and subsequent drying. The closely spaced inlet holes within each pipe allow for even distribution of suction underneath the carpet surface area for rapid withdrawal of water.

The pump and pump connection (i.e., hose) are notional, commonly available in the industry in numerous forms and sizes appropriate for the system, and do not form a part of this invention.

There is no limit to the size of the carpet. Very large carpeted surface areas could be accommodated by providing an increased number and/or size of manifolds and pumps. Those skilled in the fluid-flow art could design the appropriate number proportionate to the tube, manifold, and pump sizes and capacities desired to overcome the frictional losses inherent in the small passageways. Inexpensive, small-scale installations for the average homeowner could be readily accommodated as well as very large warehouses, office buildings, convention halls and the like. Concealed but easily accessed connection ports, designed to be flush with the carpet surface under normal use, or opening to the bottom through the floor, connect to manifolds lying within the carpet and would be opened up and connected to a pump within minutes' notice.

As a secondary benefit the system can be used for shampoo and water removal for routine cleaning of carpets. Dirt and sediment are more conveniently and thoroughly removed by suctioning surface cleaners across the entire carpet area from below the carpet, rather than from above as is common practice in commercial carpet cleaning devices and methods.

This system of underlayment tubes and manifolds could be provided with new installations of carpeting or could be retrofitted under virtually any existing carpet installation. The system is adaptable to mass-production methods in carpet factories and to small and large scale retrofits in carpeted homes and buildings. The underlayment could be a commonly designed fibrous polymer open-cell cushioned construction with the tubing and manifold integral within the thickness of the material. The carpet itself could also incorporate tubing if the carpet contains an integral padding or underlayment, for example. The purpose of the tubing or passageways is to more readily direct water flow into and out of the carpet and underlayment when a centralized suction is provided at the manifold exit.

Another embodiment of the invention is for the tubing and manifold to be supplied separately as an assembled series of flexible or semi-rigid piping, commonly available in the industry, containing a plurality of small inlet holes through which the water and air would pass. This tubing assembly would be placed uniformly and with close spacing under the existing carpet or carpet underlayment and would connect to a centralized manifold. This separately supplied kit enables retrofit of any existing carpet installation as desired.

The tubing or passages in either case would be required to withstand and/or recover from distortion by normal carpet loads including persons walking, as well as furniture and heavy items resting, upon the carpet. Those skilled in the art can solve this requirement through use of appropriate tubing materials having sufficient strength and shape memory, with enough padded underlayment thickness to evenly distribute loads and present and maintain a smooth carpet top surface.

To provide a means of concealing the opening port(s) within the carpet for the manifold connection(s) to the pump(s), a flush-mounted cover with matching carpeting, for example, is placed over the port when not in use. The cover is easily removed for quick access to the manifold connection in a flooding emergency. The cover would be placed at any convenient location on the carpet surface, normally attached with any number of conventional methods including removable adhesives or hook-and-loop fasteners, for example. The number of ports is proportional to the size of the carpet area and accordingly the number of pumps required for the job.

For access of the pump connection port from below the carpet, for example, the floor of the building would be fitted with a covered port connection and convenient access for connecting the pump, either temporarily or permanently, to the port.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

The drawings represent relative scales of each component rather than actual scale.

FIG. 1 is a perspective, cutaway view of a notional example of a common carpet installation consisting, typical within the industry, of the main carpet and underlayment, with the embodying invention shown as a series of pipes or passageways embedded within or underneath the underlayment and the pipes connected to a main manifold.

FIG. 2 shows the same representation as FIG. 1 except in a full perspective view with the connection port cover shown on the top surface.

FIG. 3 shows the same embodiment of the invention in a top view with hidden lines representing the piping arrangement.

FIG. 4 is a cross-section through the carpet thickness and manifold showing the example piping, manifold, pump connection port and cover arrangement.

FIG. 5 shows an alternate embodiment of the invention with discrete pipes and manifold for use in retrofit of existing carpet installations.

FIG. 6 shows the same example of FIG. 5 in a top view with hidden lines representing the piping arrangement.

FIG. 7 is a cross-section through the carpet thickness and manifold showing the example discrete piping, manifold, connection port and cover arrangement.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view with a representative pump shown connected to the carpet port fitting.

FIG. 9 is a cross-section showing the adapter pipe attached to the carpet exit port to which the pump hose (not shown) would be connected.

FIG. 10 is a cross-section of the same embodiment of FIG. 9 except that the pump adapter fitting is connected through and below the floor. This is an alternate embodiment with the advantage of a more integral and permanent installation within the building, draining from below.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to FIG. 1, the view shows a typical carpet installation having a main carpet 1, and a padded underlayment 2. The underlayment is configured with the object of this invention, a plurality of parallel pipes or passageways 3, integrally manufactured into the material as a single unit, or the pipes or passageways separately embodied in a third layer as an option for manufacturing flexibility. Each pipe or passageway is connected to a main manifold 4, or plurality of manifolds in large installations.

FIG. 2 shows the same embodiment of the invention as FIG. 1 with the main carpet 1, underlayment 2, and the manifold port connection 5 covered with a layer of carpet.

FIG. 3 shows a top view of the carpet installation and the main carpet 1, with the piping or passageways 3 shown as hidden lines.

FIG. 4 is a partial cross-section (A-A) through the thickness of the carpet installation, showing the main carpet 1, padded underlayment 2, plurality of piping or passageways 3, manifold 4, the manifold access port 6, and access port cover 5, installed on top of the floor 10. The piping 3 and manifold 4 could be manufactured with the lower half exposed to the floor 10 as shown in the view. The floor 10 on which the installation is placed would form a natural seal for the lower half of the piping system, fully enclosing the pipes or passages 3 and manifold 4. This affords simplification of manufacture in that the piping system would not need to be totally enclosed within the underlayment material.

The purpose of the access port cover 5 is to conceal and cap the manifold access port 6 for normal use. It would have, for example, a top layer of carpeting identical to, and flush with, the main carpet for cosmetic concealment of the port.

FIG. 5 is a similar view as FIG. 1 except showing an alternate embodiment of the invention. The main carpet 1, is placed on top of the padded underlayment 2, and are typical of numerous existing installations in the industry. Underneath this installation is placed a modification and object of this invention as an alternative embodiment, a subassembly of a number of discrete rigid or semi-rigid pipes 3 containing numerous small holes (not shown) for water passage from the carpet. These discrete pipes are closely spaced and connected to the main manifold pipe 4. The manifold 4 has an outlet access port 6 at one end. The piping 3 and manifold 4 would form a sealed subassembly placed underneath existing carpet 1 and padding 2 installations by removing the installation and re-installing first with the piping subassembly on the bottom against the floor.

FIG. 6 is the same embodiment as FIG. 5 except in a top view showing the main carpet 1 and discrete piping 3 as a series of hidden lines.

FIG. 7 is a partial cross-section (B-B) through the thickness of the carpet installation, showing the main carpet 1, padded underlayment 2, plurality of piping or passageways 3, manifold 4, the manifold access port 6, and access port cover 5. The piping 3 and manifold 4 would form an integral subassembly placed underneath the existing carpet 1 and padding 2 installations and on top of the floor 10.

FIG. 8 shows any of the aforementioned installations except with the separate pump or vacuum device 7 attached to the carpet 1 with a hose or similar connection (not shown) to the carpet adapter fitting 8. The pump 7 and pump connection (i.e., hose) are notional, commonly available in the industry in numerous forms and sizes appropriate for the purpose, and do not form a part of this invention.

FIG. 9 is the same embodiment of FIG. 8 shown as a cross-section (A-A, referred to FIG. 3) with the pump adapter fitting 8 attached to the access port 6 through the carpet top surface 1. The access port cover (5 in FIG. 7) is not shown and is removed for enabling connection of the pump adapter fitting 8.

FIG. 10 is a cross-section of the same embodiment of FIG. 9 except that a reconfigured pump adapter fitting 9 is connected within or below the floor 10. This is an alternate design of the invention with the advantage of a more integral and permanent installation within the building. The access port is below the carpet surface and no modification to the carpet itself, including access port covers (5 in FIG. 7), required. This access system would be part of the main building design at the outset of construction, or added as a modification to the flooring in existing installations, as an option. 

1. A series of flexible or rigid feeder pipes, passageways, tubing or similar conduits containing numerous, small, radially and longitudinally-spaced entrance holes, said tubing connecting to a manifold and single or multiple access/suction port(s), said port(s) placed above or below the carpet and floor, said tubing integral with and evenly and closely spaced within or under a carpet, carpet underlayment or carpet padding or similar floor coverings, and said tubing provided as an integral part of the carpet or underlayment or similar floor covering manufacturing process.
 2. An assembled array of discrete flexible or rigid feeder pipes, passageways, tubing or similar conduits containing numerous, small, radially and longitudinally-spaced entrance holes, said tubing connecting to a manifold and single or multiple access/suction port(s), said port(s) placed above the carpet, or below the carpet and thus through the floor, and said tubing separately constructed from the carpet or underlayment designed as a kit for retrofit of said tubing to be closely and evenly spaced under any pre-existing installations of a carpet, carpet underlayment or similar floor coverings.
 3. A method of cleaning installed carpets by removing shampoo and water and drying the carpet by suctioning through a series of flexible or rigid feeder pipes, passageways, tubing or similar conduits containing numerous, radially and longitudinally spaced small entrance holes, said tubing connecting to a manifold and single or multiple access/suction port(s), said port(s) placed above the carpet, or below the carpet and thus through the floor, said tubing integral with and evenly and closely spaced within or under a carpet, carpet underlayment or carpet padding or similar floor coverings, and said tubing provided as an integral part of the carpet or underlayment or similar floor covering manufacturing process. 